Thanks - I was replying to a picture of a transporter bay, no?
Yes, now I do understand that you were replying to a picture of a transporter. Which I suppose is a perfect example of what can go wrong when communication takes place “virtually”. The problem in this case was on the receiving end (me). Still, I don’t think that “scanning” is the appropriate analogy for the transporter. My layman understanding of the transporter is that it rearranges one into some sort of energy (maybe plasma) and then reconstructs you on the other end. Theoretically there is nothing created nor destroyed in the process. Granted, it is not settled science fiction. Even well into the 30th millennium there were people who would not allow themselves to be transported. Call it “fear of flying”. Ironically, it would seem that those personages who did not have a strong confidence in the science of it were the very ones who had unfortunate transporter experiences. They may be the ones who knew of the very risky early experiment wherein a man and a fly had a most horrifying accident.